This research was funded by the 2022 CILMAR Seed Grant. The YouTube link to the presentation can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6m1lhySRd4&ab_channel=CILMAR.

Special thanks to Dr. Guang Lin and Yujie Chen for their assistance on this project.

This study examines the effectiveness of six intercultural learning modules in enhancing students’ intercultural competency. In addition, it explores students’ attitudes toward the design of the learning modules from an instructional designer's perspective. The research participants included 15 students enrolled in a core learning design class. Students were required to complete the first two topics (i.e., Topics 1&2) and one additional topic of their choice listed below.

1. Topic 1: Understanding Accents Different from Your Own (UA)
2. Topic 2: Digging Deeper with Critical Reflection (CR)
3. Topic 3: Intercultural Collaboration
4. Topic 4: Teaming I: Communication
5. Topic 5: Teaming II: Self and Other Awareness
6. Topic 6: Teaming III: Productive Conflict

Students also completed their evaluations and reflections for each topic through a survey that included 25 Likert scale questions (1 = poor and 4 = exceptional) relevant to five categories (i.e., content quality, motivation, instructional design, cognitive, and intuitiveness) and five open-ended questions. Quantitative data analysis indicated that students’ learning experiences were positive. The average score of the 25 questions for the topics reviewed is around 3 or above. The open-ended question responses were analyzed using thematic analysis and R-Studio – Sentimental Analysis. The bing sentiment lexicons and nrc sentiment lexicons showed that students were positive toward the learning modules as well. Additionally, two themes evolved from the open-ended responses: 1) Students learned more about cultural differences and how to communicate in a team environment, and 2) Students are motivated to be more proactive in reaching out to people with different backgrounds, accents, etc.

If you are interested in applying for the CILMAR Seed Grant, information can be found here: https://purdue.edu/ippu/cilmar/research/seed-grants.html. Applicants should be employed and/or pursuing a course of study at Purdue University’s West Lafayette campus.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Wanju Huang (2023). Enhancing Students' Intercultural Competence Through a Service-Learning Project | Seed Grant 2022. (Version 2.0).

  BibTex | EndNote

1. global service learning
2. intercultural competence